It was the seventh time in 18 games this year that the Wings held a 2-0 lead. They only won three of those previous contests, however.

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Detroit improved to 8-7-3 overall, while Nashville dropped to 8-6-5. The Wings will have little time to rest, however, as the Vancouver Canucks invade Joe Louis tonight at 5 p.m.

Saturday, the team showed the hustle and sense of urgency that has been lacking over the past several games. Perhaps most notable was the play of the team’s third line, featuring Tatar, Joakim Andersson and Patrick Eaves.

Tatar cited the familiarity between he and Andersson, who have been teammates in Grand Rapids.

“We kind of had a bad game in Nashville, and we tried to get back at them in this one,” Tatar said. “It worked out really well. We had some chances, and could’ve had a couple more goals.”

Equally stellar was the play of Howard, who faced a barrage of Nashville chances en route to his first shutout of the year. He looked every bit like the player who made 45 saves in a win against Los Angeles on February 10. Howard deflected credit to his teammates.

“Shutouts get credited to the goalie, but it’s really a team aspect,” Howard said. “You need everyone pitching in. It’s a team stat.”

Regardless of perspective, the entire team played very solid. While they jumped ahead to what has become a characteristic two-goal lead, the team refused to let up and give the Predators life.

“We’ve been getting a lot of goals early in games,” Howard said. “It’s the process of not letting teams get back into the game.”

His counterpart, the normally stellar Pekka Rinne, allowed four goals on 26 shots.

Cleary notched a power play goal at 11:48, increasing the Detroit lead to 4-0. The scoring play began with Pavel Datsyuk tossing the puck to Kronwall, who bombed a slap shot toward the right side of the net. Standing in front of Rinne, Cleary batted the puck down and in. The helper was Datsyuk’s second of the night, and his 20th point of the season.

The Red Wings pumped in a pair of even strength goals in the second period, and skated off with a 3-0 cushion.

Kronwall scored a strange one-timer goal at 15:33.

Datsyuk fed a backhand pass to the top of the left circle, where Kronwall was waiting. The defenseman tried to one-time the puck, but he only caught a piece of it – causing the puck to flutter toward the net. Rinne, however, was screened by Dan Cleary in front, and allowed the goal. Justin Abdelkader earned an assist on the play.

Tatar and linemate Andersson combined for a beautiful goal at 2:58. The duo worked a give-and-go down in the right corner in the Nashville end. The puck ended up mere inches away from Rinne, forcing Tatar to lift the puck straight up and over the sizable netminder. It was Tatar’s third of the year, and it showed off the considerable skill the 22-year-old Slovakian possesses.

“It was a little scrum in front of the net,” Tatar explained. “I was just taking my time and put it high. I saw that (Rinne’s) pads were down, and that I had to go upstairs if I wanted to score.”

Miller’s second goal of the season, which proved to be the game-winner, came as a result of a very well-executed sequence. Eaves busted down the left wing boards; he threw a pass back to Kronwall at the left point. Kronwall one-timed the puck, which bounced off Rinne’s right leg. Miller slapped in the rebound at 5:11, staking Detroit to a 1-0 lead.

Only some superb work from Howard kept the Predators off the board in the first 20 minutes.

Nashville’s best chance of the period came at the 11:00 mark, when Matt Halischuk went in on a breakaway. A pass from Roman Josi took a strange bounce over the stick of Jonathan Ericsson, leading to the breakaway. Halischuk’s shot was turned aside by Howard – as was the ensuing rebound, also off the blade of Halischuk.

Howard again was forced to be sharp with about six minutes to go in the first.

Martin Erat let loose a shot from the slot, only to see Howard deflect it with his blocker.